Novelty Hill Januik Winery

This winery took with it may learning from Château.
1. Huge wine selection
2. $ 10 for only 4 tastes
3. Cold tasting room associates
4. Beautiful grounds
5. Shiny and pretty on the outside but lack quality on the inside.
I have been here many times and it has always been pretty, but not a welcoming atmosphere. My friend loved their chardonnay and was insistent we visit. I internally, reluctantly went along, but was happy to give the place another try. Even through the room was much quieter than normal it took forever for someone to come over and offer to pour us wine. There are only four tastings. After each tasting we were asked if we wanted anything else. Hence they were trying to push us out of the room 15 minutes before it even closed.
We got through two tastings. We swigged our third tasting and skipped our 4^th. Needless to say we didn’t buy anything. The chardonnay also tasted a bit worse with the lack of hospitality.
There are other ways they could have handled this situation. They could have informed us from the very beginning they were closing up a little early. Done. No problem We would have asked to try that Chardonnay and been on our way. They could have also offered to give us free tasting cards and to come back another time. Instead they were classless and rude. I will never go back.

Great place for the wine club member party. Upstairs, downstairs and outside in the summer when they have Winedown Wednesdays with featured musicians. Beautiful wine, beautiful people, great snacks and artisan pizzas … there’s no reason not to visit Novelty Hill Januik.

Modern, hip esthetic. Wine is good, perhaps too many to pick from. I’d recommend scaling back and focusing on fewer. $ 10 tasting for 4 wines. I’d recommend other nearby tasting rooms for more 50%+ more tastings and better quality.

Beautiful facility, probably the most stunning in Woodinville. Really helpful and nice staff. The wines missed the mark for me, though.

Quite an unfortunate visit for an industry tasting. The staff is entirely devoid of hospitality, and urges me to never push for introductions to our states distributors. The gentleman we were greeted by was older with gray hair, and had a sour disposition from the start. I do not know if this stems from management, or from the lack of care in their staff training. It was clear that they lacked the knowledge I needed for basic industry information by their inability to answer my questions about the products, nor were they hardly caring enough to make themselves available for questions. The only positive was the beautiful modern facility, but even this was overshadowed by their clueless approach to the wine business. I never write reviews, but this visit was bad enough that I felt the need to prompt the business for a much needed change in focus. Fortunately, we were finally able to finish our lackluster tasting by a different staff member who realized we (and a few others) had not been attended to in quite some time by the previously mentioned male staff member.

Very busy tasting room with lots of great options, to include some savory food options we may partake of next time.

Me and a group of six friends went to wine taste this past Saturday. We each ordered tastings and the wine pourer was an older gentlemen. He was incredibly rude and was serving only 2 other people besides us. I’m not sure if it looked like we were young and were not going to buy a lot (we ended up buying 6 tastings, 4 bottles, and 3 pizzas), but he barely acknowledged us and even left his station multiple times (no other servers did this). It took about an hour+ total to have 4 tiny tastings. His last comment on the 4^th pour was «guess I can’t ignore you all any longer». Will never buy their wine again.

On a typical Saturday, my husband and I roll up to Novelty-​Hill Januik, come in, find a seat at one of their comfy couches, order a delicious bottle of wine and one of their tasty oven-​brick pizzas, and chat with the staff who always stop to say «Hello!» and call us by our first names.
I don’t understand the reviews that say the staff are not friendly here, because we only ever had inviting and pleasant service at Januik. We have been long-​time wine club members, had our wedding at NHJ, and come to their Wine’d Down Wednesdays. They throw the most amazing parties for their wine-​club members, and their end-​of-​the year holiday bash is like none other. If you’re looking for a winery that really appreciates it’s members, look no further.
Their wines are amazing and there is a big variety that’s sure to please most everyone. They have just about everything for your palate from rose, to roussanne, to sangiovese, to petit verdots, to cab francs, and I have even seen them do a muscat canneli. But if you’re a huge Washington merlot (screw you, Sideways) drinker like I am, you will not be disappointed. Did you know that Mike Januik was named one of the world’s ten «Masters of Merlot» by Wine Enthusiast? Like, no biggie, right? Um, heck yes! And it shows in his wines.
The facility itself is a sleek, modern, concrete building. They have a huge outdoor space that has a bocce ball court and tons of outdoor seating.
If you haven’t been to NHJ, make sure to put it on your bucket list. And if you have discovered NHJ and love it, cheers to you!

Every wine we tasted on this was really good. Nice setting, but a bit too modern for my taste. Service was solid.
Fortunately, they have a distributer back where we live so we can purchase there.

Disappointed. Staff unknowledgeable about wine… tasted the red and all fell «flat» nothing special if you like a full bodied & full of tannins or spicy.
Not worth going too:(
If you at new to reds, this might be your place. if you are a red fan. DEFINITELY SKIP.

Very nice winery to visit if you are in the area and one of the very first on the left side of Woodinville-​Redmond Road Northeast when you pull into «wine country». We visited on a Tuesday afternoon so the tasting room/​winery was pretty empty; can’t remark on how crowded it gets on weekends.
The tasting cost either $ 10 or $ 15 for four pours/​tastes. I don’t remember because I was just a moocher this time; I let my companion pay. We didn’t purchase any wines at this location — didn’t find anything that really jumped out at us but then again we didn’t really spend a whole lot of time at Januik.
Lots of free parking and pretty photo ops on one of the nicest, hippest tasting rooms in Woodinville!

Fantastic Reds !! cabs 2011and Syrah 2012! Smooth and full of body !!

While en-​route here for a birthday party, I read the reviews of this place.
The first thing I checked were the ‘non recommended reviews’ as that’s where the real reviews are; the ones that someone made a Unilocal account to author.
They were all dismal two star performances that talked about bad wine at ultra-​premium prices and horrible service. There was no escape for me, so I steeled myself to make the best of it.
The first tipoff was that they wouldn’t seat us in a reserved, unstaffed, dirty outdoor section until our entire party had arrived, like it was a Cheesecake Factory in a mall full of «who farted» t-​shirt models.
After standing around for a while and having the queen harpy occasionally swing by to offer snipes and firmly solidifying the ‘you made a mistake to come here at any price’ premise, we were treated to bottles of garbage wine at a reasonable list price with a colossal service charge.
As none of the ~10 bottles (if it was indeed that many) of regular unleaded that were consumed were any good by anyones standard. In this modern rendition of My Fair Shiraz, you can take the box off of the boxed wine and give her voice lessons, but you can’t make her delicious.
I took a moment and put on my best sommelier impression for my fellow attendees, people here who universally had never consumed wine before this day (which is why they ended up at this concrete bomb shelter of a venue) to extol the virtues of the heady notes of aluminium, cat piss, and old moldy woodchips that was their much extolled chardonnay.
The completely groundless and poorly delivered upselling, bragging, and namedropping of the «best wine ever» housebrand would have been very entertaining if I wasn’t a captive audience and couldn’t leave without paying for other people. The house reds were pretty much shit as well.
The «best» wine I consumed on this day was the rose which tasted like some teen high school party wine cooler favored by cheerleaders.
The bill for a few bottles made no sense as the bottles ranged from $ 16 – 22 and the bill reflected double that or more. I think they have some kind of admission scam per person that allows them to say that there is no charge for the event space.
But there is. It worked out to over $ 100 over the cost of wine for the opportunity to consume QFC wine department clearance swill.
This scam seems to go over well for rural unsophisticates, and I guess people that think Woodenville is chique and classy fit that demographic.
I’ll end with something nice. Their $ 14 flatbreads, so called so that they are not confused with the art and craft of actual pizza, were less disappointing than I had expected, but not worthy of the carbs, so I left hungry and ate elsewhere.
My favorite part about my trip to this venue was the $ 2 soft serve cone I finished in the parking lot before entering.

Glad to see Januik seems to be checking Unilocal!I agree with the reviewer who said that staff seem disinterested. We have been members here for two years — love the wine, love the venue… but we had come to dread the staff’s aloof attitude.
Went back yesterday (as a «last-​chance corral» thing) and were pleasantly surprised by the attentive service and friendly greetings. Won’t quit yet… Please keep up the customer service!

The employees seem totally disinterested in customers. Three or four seemed to be conducting a scheduling meeting when I arrived at 4:00 pm on Thursday and they shared exactly zero about the wine or the winery. I had read good reviews about the Januik wine itself so was very disappointed with tasting experience.

Parking is a bit difficult and tight, perhaps because it’s the weekend. We had to circle the lot and park in the back. We were brought here by our wine tasting waiver through Adventura (next to Redhook). We got 4 tastings of our choice and enjoyed it in their spacious backyard area — there were plenty of tables for groups to sit at and even a small bocce playbox, fun for adults & kids.
If you like dessert wine, the Muscat Canelli is one to try! I had to bring a bottle home w/​me!

We got married here this last summer and it was the best decision we’ve ever made… well, besides the whole ‘getting married’ thing.
From the moment I contacted Januik, I knew we made the right decision. Januik is gorgeous — it’s modern and beautiful and it’s got lots of natural water features that make the space very comfortable and serene. I’m from Seattle but I relocated to the bay area 5 years ago. I knew that I wanted our wedding to be in Seattle near my family, and I knew that my husband and his parents would love this space.
The events manager Emily is a godsend. She worked with our crazy schedules and was so flexible — we were so thankful for her assistance and guidance. She was so communicative — I really don’t know what we would have done without her.
When our wedding day was here, we felt completely at ease. Every single detail was executed perfectly. The ceremony, the music, the food (oh, the food!) — even the gold sugar rims on the champagne glasses before our ceremony were perfectly placed and flawless. The food here is incredible as well. When is the last time you had great food at a wedding? Our friends and family still rave about hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and dinner…
And did I mention the wine? Well, it’s excellent. We’ve been back several times when we’re in Seattle to visit. It never disappoints. Both labels (Januik and Novelty Hill) are excellent.
Whether you’re getting married or just tasting some wine, Januik is definitely as good as it gets!

Take time to stop and smell the rosé. ;)
Came to Novelty Hill with a few girlfriends on a Saturday morning to try their wine tasting. The wine tasting is $ 10 for four pours of your choice. The winery also served flatbread after noon for $ 14 each.
We went closer to opening time (at 11AM) and found that the tasting room wasn’t too busy, but it definitely picked up around 1−2PM. The tasting staff was fairly attentive and were quick to get our next glasses, even as other visitors came and went.
The flatbread was a great addition for a post-​tasting lunch. Portion-​wise, each flatbread is big enough for two people. They have additional seating outside which was perfect for a late summer morning! :)

I was super excited to go to this place in Woodinville as I was introduced to the wine at a local store. Meh. The tasting wines are the same as at home, the staff is not passionate about the wine, and it was just a bummer as I was looking forward to it.
The building is nice but if they were in Napa they would be crushed by the competitors for service, price, and quality.

A tasting room unlike any other in the Woodinville area. Januik (I believe the pronunciation is «Jah-​nick» but prepared for correction) offers more than just delicious wines, but a sleek modern space to gawk at.
Concrete walls, floors, cool vibe, outdoor seating, bocce ball … wrapped up with the most extroverted servers out here. They’ll carry a conversation with you as long as they can given volumes.
Pizza here is great, whether you’re the DD or you’re 6 glasses down.
The only downside to Januik is the pricetag. Tastings and bottles are both a little excessive, especially considering the competition — Château St. Michelle and Columbia are just down the street. Even if their (Novelty Hill) Sangiovese is phenomenal is as their white wines, I find it hard to swallow the costs when there are more reasonably priced wines elsewhere. But perhaps a true wine snob can see the value.